The Flame of the Universe
by GreviousPridakArbiter
Summary: After a tragic death by meteorite I end up as a uncommon demigod in the PJO universe. Takes place around the time of the Titan's Curse. Self Insert.
1. Chapter 1

**I do not own the PJO series, though I do own Veritas and Victoria.**

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The fires of Victory and the flames of Truth

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One second I was here the other I was not. I found myself on a stark white featureless plain. White stretched as far as the eye could see. Gradually the portion above my head became a light blue sky with wisps of cloud floating in it.

Needless to say I was very confused, "Hello? Anybody?"

With a disturbing snap hiss, a vortex of red light sprang up in my immediate vision. It was overall a light red color with a dark red center. Tendrils of orange and pink stretched away to points far past the horizon.

"Hello," the vortex said in a whispery but grating voice.

I raised an eyebrow, "Am I dead?"

"More or less," The vortex said, "You would have died three minutes from now."

"From what?" I asked taking this information far too lightly for I actually was perfectly prepared to die for the last years and months. Not that I wished for my life to end just I was curious at what lay beyond.

"Meteorite," the vortex said with a chuckle.

"Phew," I said, then added brightly "At least I didn't die of an aneurism, internal hemorrhaging, drowning, or being eaten alive. Meteorite is very unique; I doubt anybody else died of a meteorite this year after all."

The vortex appeared shocked for a second because he was quiet for a while. After waiting for him, or it, to say something I asked, "Are you some type of supreme being?"

He snorted, "Of course not! God would have gotten over this awkward silence by now."

Another awkward silence ensued. This time the vortex broke it by saying, "Ok, you have now died…and…Well I have a mission for you-."

I cut him off while thinking, I just died now? "I want some powers then."

Startled he replied, "Um, well, I don't know…Oh well…What powers? Why are you even the one making demands?"

I laughed a faux evil laugh then stopped as another thought hit me, "Where am I even going? Am I leaving my reality? If so that would be great! Nothing ever happens here! It's all so drab and innocent and…well you get the idea…does this mission get to have explosions?"

The Vortex gazed at me for a few seconds or at least I think it gazed at me, after all it is kind of hard to tell with something that has no eyes, "Beats me."

"What do you mean? Don't you know where I am going? You're an over grown hyper real freak!"

"Hyper real? How is that even an insult?" The Vortex said with quite a bit of an insulted tone in its voice so I reckoned my insult actually worked, though I had no idea why the stupid thing even considered that an insult.

"Can you give me any clues?" I asked the Vortex and tried to bring a hand up to rub my face in exasperation but found that I actually had no body to begin with. How I missed the fact that I had no body I had no rational thought.

"Let's see," The Vortex muttered, "One lost in the land without rain?"

"Land witho-what? Can you repeat that, I didn't get it all," I said or more like snarled. I mean my day was perfectly fine without all these complications.

"Yes," The Vortex said in quite a different voice and I wondered whether the cursed thing was going to repeat what it said, but it continued talking to someone that was most certainly not there!

"Uh huh, right away, PJO Universe eleven thousand and eleven? Continuity nine? Of course, Sir, Right away."

"What the-" I started as he wrapped up.

"Nope," the Vortex said quickly, "No questions! Off you go!"

As the world faded to black I thought, _idiot didn't even tell me what the mission was._

()

Arrival: 1994

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Warmth…that was the first thing I felt… Additionally I felt groggy, very sleepy. With effort I opened my eyes, looking down on me was a blurry face, but they were bright. It was difficult to discern the color, everything was jumbled together.

I began to get frustrated and my body started to cry. This startled me and I promptly stopped crying, only to blink stupidly.

Then I was up against a warm body that my brain identified as, Mother. Oh, somehow when I had been transported to this universe, wherever it was, they decided to make it as seamless as possible. I didn't particularly mind but then I was thinking so slowly that the implications would probably set in a little later when I wasn't so tired.

"Veritas," The woman, Mother, said, "Veritas Nova, New Truth, that is your name."

Veritas? Latin? Yup, the Latin word for truth. That's a boy's name. It was good since I was male. Though, I wondered sleepily, Why the Latin? My eyes slowly closed.

()

What felt like seconds later I jolted awake to the noise of another baby crying? Was this a hospital? Sadly, my vision was awful and I couldn't make out anything at all. I tried to turn my head but found I could not so I listened, thankfully I could still understand words.

My Mother spoke again but this time it seemed she was speaking to someone else, "Victoria, Victoria Nova."

Victoria Nova? New Victory? What is with the Latin? Maybe Mother is a Latin freak? Or maybe this is the PJO universe…Yeah right. That would be just my luck. I tried to scowl but didn't possess the muscle control to do so, um, I started crying. Evidently I don't control my emotions in this body very well and when my emotions get out of hand this form bawls like a little baby. Odd but true nevertheless.

Suddenly mother was back and I was picked up from the warmth of my bed or crib or whatever I was in. She rocked my back and forth while holding another infant on which I managed to discern had strikingly red hair. Red hair!

What the? My, someone is going to have a temper someday… Of course that is a trope. Then slowly but surely I drifted off into the grasp of sleep.

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Three years later: 1997

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Around three years later I discovered something concerning. I had initially thought that reading would be a piece of cake but the words floated around in addition to being hopelessly jumbled. Dyslexia. I had Dyslexia, I couldn't read a thing.

That's when I began to think, I only have one parent, oh yeah I never explained what she looked like, her name was, besides Mommy, Dawn Nova, she had bright red hair and a kind face. She also had what sometimes seemed to be brown eyes but could be dark red.

Only one parent and dyslexia, that would be the recipe for demigod wouldn't it? I gave the issue brief consideration before shrugging it off as, Impossible! That isn't even possible, right? It must be something else, I already had nightmares full of Cyclops and zombies and the like, I didn't need super realistic demi-dreams.

Along this all I learned to speak before my sibling Victoria, in fact I grasped language absurdly fast. My mother would sometimes get a puzzled look on her face when she looked at me. Speaking merely required me to develop the muscle memory to say the words I still retained.

Victoria learned to walk before me. I didn't possess nearly enough courage to walk until I was months past the date she learned to walk. This was another thing that caused my mother to regard me thoughtfully.

Once I got over the fear of taking a step, tripping, and cracking my over sized noggin I developed rapidly, quickly catching up with Victoria.

I was very good at puzzles and other things of that nature, probably because of my oversized intellect.

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Five years: 2003

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Around this time I actually paid attention to where we lived, despite my best efforts I couldn't figure out which state we were in. I was positive that we lived in America and I was guessing the state was New Hampshire. The house was very large, far bigger then anything that I had been accustomed to in my previous universe.

Mother loved the hearth. On cold and rainy days we would sit around the living room staring at the fire while we played games. She had to go often to her job which at this point I still haven't figured out what it is.

And so it was on a rainy day when Victoria, I, and Mommy were sitting inside playing checkers that I sprung a question that I had been waiting on.

"Mommy?" I asked innocently.

"Yes, Veritas?" Mommy answered me absent mindedly.

"What's your favorite Greek god?"

Mommy stiffened before relaxing and replying, "I don't know, perhaps Hestia."

"Oh," I said giving her my best smile, "She's my favorite too!"

Mommy smiled; a smile of real warmth, which wasn't uncommon around mother anyways, "How come?"

"Because she is the goddess of families, and I like families," I said picking the first thought that came to mind. I smiled inwardly to myself; my mother almost acts like Hestia in the PJO series.

I wondered iddly whether I went there or not. But even if I went there I would never be a child of Hestia because she is a virgin. Without another thought I banished the thought from my mind and moved another of my checker pieces. I paused after moving my piece into a bad position and my sister crowed with delight as she captured the piece.

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2005: I am eleven years old

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It always seemed to me that if I looked hard enough in the mirror that my eyes would change from brown to a dark warm red. The brown eyes were strange though especially with the blazingly red hair.

My sister and I both had red hair and a pale complexion. She had quite a sunny personality, even more so than mine. I found that it was difficult to stay upset at anything she did for long.

I gazed out the door at the nice snowy winter morning; thankfully it was a Saturday, so no school. I galloped down the stairs fully intent on eating breakfast and disappearing with my sister to explore the woods outside for the millionth time.

"Good morning," My mother said happily laying a platter of eggs on the table.

I replied in kind to my mother then smirked, "Victoria not up yet?"

My mother shook her head then grinned mischievously, "You should wake her up."

I grinned and dashed back up the stairs to my sisters room. I slowly eased open the door and snuck over to her bed, and yelled as loudly as I could, "Aliens!"

She shot out of bed with a startled expression on her face and whacked her head into the wall, then turned around and charged me with, "Don't do that again!"

I raised an eyebrow before heading back towards the door, "Breakfast time! The late bird has to eat the worms!"

"Eeeeww!" She screeched and through her pillow at me, something I easily dodged.

I chuckled to myself as I reached the ground floor. I remembered idly a few years ago when I had almost though that me and my sister in this universe were demigods. But when I confronted my mother about her job she seemed to bring up enough evidence that she was a mortal CEO of some moderately large home furnishing company.

Anyways the only Olympian that fit was Hestia and there was no way she could be raising us with the laws Zeus and Hera put in place.

I rolled my eyes while striding into the dining room. If my mother was Hestia she also would have at least done something when I thought of future events around her. Didn't the deities have telepathy?

I paused once reaching the dining room; my mother was watching the TV. But that's not what bothered me; it was the storm clouds and the reporter yelling about the onset of freak storms and earthquakes. My mother almost appeared to be watching something more on the TV, something that only she could see.

Controlling my growing apprehension I sat in my seat and started to eat while drifting off into the land of thought. What year was it? 2005. I knew I was in another reality, but which one? I couldn't help but think that the storms were important to me in figuring out what was going on.

Then it hit me like a gorilla taped to a freight train. 2005. The year that Zeus' lightning bolt was stolen in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. What had the vortex called this universe, the PJO universe?

And what did the sky and seas look like they were doing? Fighting. What were Zeus and Poseidon doing in _The Lightning Thief_? They were fighting. And with nearly sickening realization I discerned that I was in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians world.

Then my only thought was, Oh Styx, I hope I'm not a demigod. Then again how would I change anything if I wasn't? I groaned under my breath, I hope I'm wrong.

Then my mother said, in a barely controlled voice, "I need to go to work early today."

And she almost literally flew out the door and towards her, she called over her shoulder as she left, "Don't leave the house!"

She had just gotten back from a trip which had lasted several days. And that trip coincided just right for the Winter Solstice meeting on Olympus.

I watched my mother drive off in worry while thinking, is she a goddess? If so which goddess? And if she wasn't why would she need to drive off so quickly after watching that newscast?

()

**Well what do people think?**


	2. Chapter 2: mail lady

**I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians.**

POV Victoria

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Time Jump 373 days

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After winter of 2004, it is now early November of 2005, Veritas, (my brother) has been acting strange.

In winter 2004 mother had to speed off to some emergency meeting at her company, home furnishing or something like that, and then Veritas went ballistic. For the next couple of months after this incident he has been devouring every single book on Greek myths he has been able to get his hands on.

The strangest thing is he is dyslexic like me but doesn't let that stop him. He reads almost a book on Greek Myths a week, books that would take me months to finish. Now I think he exhausted the local libraries Greek books and has now switched to the Roman myths.

Both my brother and I have blazing red hair and brown eyes. I once caught Veritas in summer of 2005 muttering something about us both having red eyes but that's impossible because when I look in the mirror both my eyes are a warm brown color.

Overall this would be a normal family without my brother getting all strange I can hear him muttering away in his room when I stand in the hall outside his door,

It's mostly stuff like, "Hecate? No, she wouldn't be kind enough. Might be one of the male Gods…"

Or, "It all seems to point at Hestia…"

I have no idea why he has been so obsessed with the Greeks but it is way more then strange. Maybe he started to believe in a dead religion.

Mother makes thoughtful faces whenever he comes by, as if she's debating whether he knows something he shouldn't. Or she glances at the phone as if considering calling somebody for him. I really doubt Veritas is insane though, he always seem much to there for insanity.

Of course when I asked Veritas if he was going insane with all the reading he glanced at me and whispered, "That would explain everything wouldn't it? If only it was that easy…"

Weird.

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Christmas came and is now two days ago. Mother got both me and Veritas identical watches. Veritas glanced at them cautiously for a while as if they would suddenly turn into a sword or gun.

Besides that he seemed to like his watch immensely. His watch was a faded red color with orange engravings of a flame on the side. Mine was a much brighter red with yellow flames.

I hadn't been planning to wear my watch but so far I always remember it when I see Veritas with his watch.

Speaking of Veritas he has gotten a lot more paranoid. He is constantly glancing over his shoulder as if he expects a Hydra, his books are getting to me, to be waiting behind him about to bite his head off.

On another hand speaking of weird, I caught Veritas with an almost insane look in his eyes taking multi-grain cereal out of the box and putting it in a plastic baggy before slipping it into his pocket.

He looked at me and said the strangest thing, "Do you think Ceres has the same fascination with cereal as Demeter?"

And I replied something along the lines of, "Who and what with Sears have cereal dementia?"

He just looked at me with an expression of shock that rapidly changed to amusement before he started sacrificing cereal in the fire place. No not really, but with the way his Greek eccentricity is going it won't be long until he starts to do something as insane as that.

()

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Now all of this was no preparation for when things really went bonkers, it started on a brisk 2007 morning about three weeks before winter break.

It was evening and our mother was still out at her job but would be back soon. Veritas was as usual sitting engrossed in his books on Greek mythology. Unlike me, who struggled immensely at school, Veritas was done with everything in inkling. Sometimes I wondered if he had done this before, that's how fast he was.

I wandered over to where he was taking notes at the table on some Roman myth. Looking over his shoulder I noticed all his notes were in what looked like Greek. I never saw Greek before but looking at them I just knew they were Greek.

"Um," I said intelligently, unfortunately just loud enough that he heard.

He rolled his eyes, "Yes, Victoria?"

"When did you learn to write Greek?"

"School," He replied but I caught just a hint of hesitation.

"Really?" I asked and glanced down at his notes. Surprisingly I could actually make out a couple phrases, 'three weeks, The Titan's Curse, dangerous, and saw a hellhound today, Dec. 5.'

With a start I realized that it wasn't a paper at all but a page from his journal.

"What is this?" I demanded looking to gain confirmation.

He sighed and answered, "A journal, dear sister."

"Since when did you keep a journal?" I asked frowning.

"I hav-" Veritas started before the doorbell rang.

This time he frowned even as I thought, must be the mailman. He smoothly slid out of his seat and approached the door. Why is he so tense? Is he honestly afraid of the mailman?

I trailed along behind him as he looked out the window moving the drapes ever so slightly.

"Empousa," He hissed quietly, then he looked conflicted for a second, "We have to call Mom."

I glanced out the window after him. Sheesh. That's just the mailman. Or more like mailwoman, but still that's no Emmy possum.

"Is it somebody you know?" I asked, after all didn't he call the mailwoman Emmy Possum?

"Shhh!" Veritas replied while making a beeline over to the kitchen quietly and towards the phone.

"It's just the mail person," I insisted. I glanced back at the mailwoman who looked like she was starting to get impatient.

Here! I thought, I'll get the door since my brother obviously isn't bright enough to do so.

I walked over and grabbed the door knob.

My brother glanced towards me mid-dial, "No don't, you idiot!"

I gritted my teeth, he better not of called me an idiot, and I swung the door open.

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POV: Veritas

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My sister is officially a world class idiot. Well unless you look at the situation from her point of view then I was an overly paranoid crazy loony.

After 2005's incident I realized that I had really got hurled into the Percy Jackson universe. I believe my mother didn't know whether I new or not. It was obvious the only reason she had refrained from asking me if I knew or not was in case I didn't know already I would know then.

I had taken me a couple of months of trying before I finally pierced the mist. One of the leading clues for knowing that I was a demi-god was the phone number for Camp-Half-blood written on the phone in silver Sharpie.

With my newfound ability to see past the mist I saw everything in a new light. I have seen several monsters, Cyclops, Hellhounds, Dracanea, and one or two others.

They gave me and my sister a wide berth when we were out with out mother. At other times I led Victoria away from the monsters.

The ability of our mother to repel monsters was another leading point of my suspicion of her being a goddess. Which gladly meant that we were not children of any of the big three.

I think that she is possibly some sort of fire nymph that had children with a mortal. Oh yeah my reason for that is when the mist is removed from mine and my sisters eyes our eyes are either red or at other times subtly flaming.

And a couple weeks ago I was arranging the logs in the hearth, fireplace, when a log rolled outwards from a precarious position. I caught the flaming log of course very stupidly, but that wasn't important, the most important thing was my hand didn't burn.

In fact my hand caught fire and I had a flaming hand that wasn't burning for a couple moments. I immediately thought of Hephaestus as a godly parent but disregarded it when confronted with the realization that neither I nor my sister can build anything with anything.

I mean the one time I tried to build a model airplane I ended up making it look like a junk heap gained sentience and grew antennae.

All this brings me to my present predicament of, my sister. Who was just opening the door for an ancient Greek mythological monster vampire creature.

As the door started to swing open I dashed forward and as the Empousa was stepping over the threshold I slammed into the door. I of course catapulted the monster right out the door with the force of the door closing and shortly after I heard the crash and tumbling sounds of the monster rolling back down the stairs of our porch quite shocked and off balance.

"What," My sister started, "Did you just do to the mail lady?"

An inhuman shriek of indignation came from the bottom of the porch stairs. I quickly considered every weapon I had available. Sadly none of my weapons were celestial bronze…except perhaps that Bowie knife hidden somewhere around here?

I remembered a large knife made out of some yellowish metal hidden somewhere on one of the bookshelves.

Boom!

The Empousa hit the door with enough force to cause cracks to appear in the oak door. My eyes widened. To do that to an oak door takes a lot of power.

"Ddid tthat mail lady just splinter the door?" My sister stuttered a little shocked by the splintering.

"Dearies!" The Empousa cackled, "Little demi-gods won't you open up the door?"

"Not on your life, slug face!" I yelled back arrogantly pressing my weight against the door.

Boom!

In a shower of plaster and drywall the Empousa smashed right through the wall next to the door.

Victoria blinked, "Demi-gods?"

"Yup," I replied quickly and opened the door quickly causing it to slam into the Empousa's head.

As she stumbled back shrieking I ran over to the semi-library room and started pulling books off the shelves. Of course I managed to snag my sister on the way over and drag her along behind me.

"Where is it? Where is it?" I muttered to myself finishing flinging the books off one bookshelf and starting on another.

The Empousa stumbled into the room. It looked like her nose had been smashed into her smug little face. Weird purple blood covered her entire face. The way her nose had been smashed made her look like a pig.

"Demi-gods?" My sister asked again still quite shocked, then she screamed as she saw the Empousa.

Not even pausing I told the Empousa, "Hello again pig face!"

The Empousa snarled and dropped any semblance of mist control revealing her donkey and bronze leg. Above that were the, hehe, fangs and angry expression. Of course the angry expression was their before but wasn't nearly so hungry looking.

"Look!" I yelled pointing over the Empousa's shoulder. Idiotically she actually turned to look. I grabbed a dictionary and threw it at the Empousa's head the second her head was looking the other way.

The Empousa yowled in pain as the really heavy and thick dictionary wkacked into her head hard enough that I heard something snap.

Ah hah! The Bowie Knife! I shoved books aside and grabbed the sheathed knife on the top shelf.

The Empousa was struggling to her feet. One eyeball was hanging out of the socket. Wow. I didn't know that I could actually whack her hard enough that one of her eyes came out.

I unsheathed the Bowie knife in one smooth motion and jumped forward as she groped for her hanging eye. With a quick downward thrust I pierced the skull of the Empousa and she exploded into golden dust.

"What was that?" My sister asked wide eyed in the corner of the room.

"Well it certainly wasn't an alien," I said my knees suddenly feeling weak as the adrenaline wore off.


	3. Chapter 3: Determined

**The Flame of the Universe Chapter Three: Rivers of Ash**

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**Point of Views in this chapter, Veritas, and Victoria**

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Victoria POV

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After I had opened up the door for the psycho mail lady my brother dispatched with what appeared to be luck. Though he didn't seem fazed until we had actually dispatched whatever that creature was.

"What was that?" I demanded angrily. After all, my brother's utter lack of surprise pointed at the fact that he had pre-knowledge about the mail lady/monster.

My brother stared down at the dust left over from the monster and spoke, "Well it wasn't an alien."

I scowled, "I never said it was. What is IT?"

He shuddered while sinking unto the floor, "You mean what was it, not what is it. Past tense, Victoria, it's dead now."

I sighed exasperated, "Then what was it?"

"An Empousa," My brother said securing the Bowie knife to his waist and looking down at his watch.

My scowl deepened, Emp-what? "WHAT is an Empeloosa?

He frowned, grinned, and then shrugged his shoulders, "Empeloosa? Never heard of those, so sadly can't tell you what they are."

I face-palmed.

"Don't crack your skull!" My brother told me heaving to his feet.

"What-ugh you imbecile-what is an Em-p-ou-sa?" I asked greatly frustrated.

He inwardly seemed to be debating something before saying, "If I tell you you'll smell worse."

I gaped, "I most certainly do not smell bad so I couldn't smell worse!"

This time it was his turn to sigh, "I don't think this is the time to tell, let's wait until mother can tell you."

I scowled then crossed my arms, and snarled, "Fine!"

He clapped his hands together and said, "Goody! That's settled then, let me get my stuff then we'll be on our way."

"On our way? Where are we going?" I blurted. Since when were we going anywhere? First he wouldn't tell me wh-wait a second, that mail lady called us demi-gods before she went all monster look alike.

"Demi-gods?" I asked my brother.

He had turned to go out of the room but stopped, "Yeah."

"Demi-Gods?" I repeated just to clarify.

He looked over his shoulder and frowned, "Yup."

Either the mail lady and my brother were delusional or we really were demi-gods. Frankly I wanted to believe they both were crazy but after seeing what that mailperson turned into…I believed.

"Children of gods and um, humans?" I asked making sure Veritas understood exactly what I meant.

My brother smiled and said, "Uh huh."

The world spun and with great effort I kept from blacking out. Finally after several long seconds I choked out, "So which gods? Venus, Neptune, and Jupiter? Those gods?"

He nodded but looked a little disturbed by my use of the Roman names, "Yes, you figured it out faster than most. And that would be the form the Romans preferred to refer to them as. Personally I prefer the Greek versions such as Aphrodite, Poseidon, and Zeus."

Huh? Greek and Roman versions?

"What's the difference?" I asked with puzzlement.

Veritas looked at me as if gauging how much to tell me, "Generally speaking, their Roman version are more stern, unforgiving, and on some occasions think things out more."

I raised an eyebrow, "Speaking from experience?"

Veritas blanched, "No, not at all. That is what I have…gathered from others."

I dropped the subject of the Roman personalities sensing that it wasn't something that Veritas wanted to talk about.

We were quiet for a few more seconds before Veritas spoke again, "I am actually surprised that we haven't been found already. After all, my scent increased after I learned about our heritage."

I frowned, "Found by what? Vampire donkey mail deliverers? And what about our heritage?"

He grinned and replied to the first point, "there are worse creatures out there then this one but it's not wise to blurt out their names."

"Why?"

A puzzled expression crossed his face as if he was trying to remember something he read years ago, "I believe it gives them more power and draws them in."

I frowned, I suppose that made sense.

"You still didn't answer about out heritage," I reminded my brother.

Suddenly he sobered up, the stupid grin melted of his face, "I haven't discovered yet."

"What do you mean?"

"I, and by likely extension you, are fireproof-" He started but I cut him off.

"Fire-proof?" I screeched.

"Fire proof," He assured and whipped out a lighter from his back pocket. I had no idea he even carried a lighter. Nevertheless my brother flicked it and out his finger right into the flames.

"What are you doing?" I yelled seeing him torch his own hand.

He pulled a finger back, a nimbus of flame trailing from it. Veritas shook his finger forcefully and the flame dissipated.

I rushed forward and grabbed his hand inspecting it for burns, after a second I let go satisfied that my brother was unharmed. If I wasn't convinced before, I was now.

I shook my head, "You were saying?"

Veritas scrunched up his brows in thought for a second before brightening then dimming again, "Despite our, ahem, my abilities and affinity to fire I have no clue who our parent is."

"Wasn't their some Olympian that had an affinity to fire, Vulces or something like that?"

"Vulcan?" Veritas scrunched together his brows again as if asking why I kept on using the Roman names, is it that important what name you call them?

"You mean Hephaestus?" My brother nearly stammered, "Yes, he was the god of fire, crafts, and blacksmiths. Or essentially the forge god. I already discarded him as a possibility."

"Why?" I asked curious, not that I really wanted to be the child of a deformed god.

"Um," My brother replied, "We don't tinker well."

What does that have to do with anything? Unless all his children were exemplary at building stuff on account of Hephaestus being fascinated with forges.

I spoke up preventing my brother from leaving, something that he kept on trying to do, "If we were, you know, his children were we supposed to be good at building things?"

"Yes," Veritas replied curtly, "Follow me, I'll explain more as I gather the stuff we need."

"Stuff? For going where?" You never answered my question before, where are we going?"

He looked at me and smirked, "Camp Half-blood, my dear sister."

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Veritas POV

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I, Veritas, child of an unknown, strode out of the room after telling my dear sister our destination. She worried me slightly with her constant fall back on the Roman form of the Greek gods.

I wonder whether our godly mother or father did the same thing that Zeus did with Thalia and Jason Grace. It wouldn't be too inconvenient to me, I could probably exist in either camp but I greatly preferred Camp Half-blood over Camp Jupiter.

Despite my resistance to heat I didn't have pyro-kinesis. I have no idea whether since I can already endure the flames whether or not I would eventually be able to make flames appear at will. I noticed that I was more then capable of holding something that was burning for a long time.

I attempted to kick start any pyro powers I might have by focusing on remembering the sensation of the flames when I held a flaming log. The most I ever got was a tingling feeling in my hands as they went maroon red in color. I picked up a coin while my hands were like that and it melted into slag.

Pity. It was my only half dollar coin. By this time I knew for sure that we most be related to god with a strong connection to fire, which kept on bringing me back to Hephaestus which made absolutely no sense. If my sister and I were children of the forge then we should be professionals at building stuff.

Sadly to say but we both are pitiful at building. Most of the things or models I build look like they came out of a junk heap with mismatched parts and are barely functional. Shortly after I found or discovered I was a demi-god I attempted to build a repeating crossbow.

Sadly to say that went well. Sarcasm intended. First off I looked like somebody glued a piece of wood to a lump of plastic and metal. Secondly it wouldn't even repeat and thirdly, when it finally fired it fired backwards, thankfully not into my shoulder, but I almost nailed my sister in the head.

After that incident my sister has always knocked on my door before letting herself in.

As of the moment I was on a search for weapons, I was betting that somewhere our mother had weapons stored for fighting off monsters. I had never seen anything but the celestial bronze bowie knife but I doubted that it was the only weapon in the house capable of killing monsters.

I arrived at the top of the stairs and walked forward to our mom's door and eased it open. The walls were a warm red color and her bed's covers were an orange color. I got down on my hands and knees and looked under her bed.

Nothing there I mentally snarled angrily. Where would mother keep weapons? Hopefully not in a gun safe, that would be most…unfortunate for us. That was an outcome that might actually kill us.

There! I noticed a cabinet made out of what looked like rosewood. I stepped over to the cabinet, which was about four feet tall set in a depression in the wall two feet of the ground. I tried the metallic gold handles. Unfortunately the cabinet was locked so I pulled out my celestial bronze bowie knife out of its sheath and slowly slid it in between the cabinet doors.

I heard a small snap of a lock being cut by something metallic, Bowie knife, and I pulled the knife out of the crack between the doors and opened them quickly.

What I found shocked me to say the least, there was two celestial bronze swords, two of them done up with flame engravings. The third was completely plain.

I grabbed the two engraved swords and read the faint red letters on the side, Hearth-fire and Western Flame. After a brief couple seconds of eternal debate I took Hearth-fire for myself, leaving Western Flame for my sister. That's when I noticed a wrapped object in the back of the cabinet. I moved aside a few strange rods and grabbed the object wrapped in red cloth. As soon as my fingers made contact with the sword a chill went through me.

With growing apprehension I swiftly tore the cloth away from the object. I inhaled at this process revealed a pure black metal sword. I shivered at the sight of the cruel looking great sword. Of course I knew an inanimate object can't really be cruel but this sword felt like it had its own personality. Shivering I made to rewrap the obviously Stygian Iron sword when a tag caught my eye.

It plainly read in ancient Greek, "To: Hestia, as a gift From: Hades."

I staggered backwards in shock. Hestia must be our mother. The question was whether she broke her oath or…perhaps she made me and my sister out of the Hearth. I recall many stories, Fan fiction mostly involving Hestia making children out of the hearth.

Though, I should have realized this sooner, especially with one of the swords being named Hearth-fire. Though I really wonder what Hades was doing giving a Stygian Iron sword to his peaceful sister.

With shaking hands I wrapped up the sword and placed in on the floor alongside the sword for my sister. I wasn't actually going to let my sister carry a sword of that potential; she probably would end up lopping MY head off with it.

I reached back inside the cabinet and picked up one of the strange rods. Within seconds it elongated into a spear. A warm red engraving of a hearth flame adorned the spearhead. I thought off it returning to its previous form and it did so, quickly returning to a metallic rod. I grabbed two of the rods and carefully picked up the bronze sword and then the Stygian Iron sword, which was rewrapped by the way.

I turned to leave but a small cloth bag on top of the cabinet caught my eye. Making a mental note to come back and check it out I went to my room to retrieve an olive green backpack that I had convinced my mother to buy for me. She, um Hestia, had wanted to buy a red backpack but I convinced her to buy the green, I had explained that the red stood out to much.

She had agreed after I informed her of that. I grabbed my backpack from my closet and opened up my dresser, digging through it until I found what I wanted. A pair of young adult battle dress uniforms that I had bought with my own money online. I had anticipated that we would end up on the run so I thought it crucial to prepare as much as possible.

That being said I rapidly changed into my camouflage and dropped the two rods into the backpack. I carefully secured the Stygian Iron sword to the backpack afterwards, keeping it carefully wrapped up. I attached my sword to my backpack, under my right armpit, in such a way that I could easily pull it out with my left hand.

I detached the Bowie knife and Western Flame in preparation to hand it over to my sister who was still downstairs. I stuffed the camouflage that I had got for her into my backpack in case she wanted it later. Then I grabbed my sunglasses and hooked it onto my shirt.

That done I quickly retraced my ground back to my mother's room and grabbed the bag on top of the cabinet. As I suspected it was full of golden drachmas, I put that into the backpack as well.

My main plan was to hike the distance to the border of New York and then utilize the Taxi of the Gray Sisters. Thankfully I still remembered the words to summon them from my time reading _The Sea of Monsters_. Also Thankfully it was only about thirty to forty miles from our point in New Hampshire to the border of New York, that was of course if we went west. We could probably hitchhike or something until New York.

I turned to walk down the stairs when I heard an animalistic snarl from the downstairs and my sister screaming something unintelligible about monster rhino dogs.

Great, I thought, there must be a Hellhound in the dining room.

**Next on Flame of the Universe: the Hunt of Artemis**


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